WHY DO WE NEED CLEAN AIR

 Air Pollution causes one in three deaths from stroke, chronic respiratory disease and lung cancer. 1 in 4 deaths from heart attack is caused by air pollution. Ground level Ozone produced by interaction of pollutants in sunlight causes asthma and chronic respiratory disease . Air pollution is one of the most critical health threats today.

seven million people die prematurely. Ozone air pollution alone is responsible for 52 million tons of global crop losses annually. Air pollution drives climate change crisis.Economic costs are mounting - through health care bills, lost productivity, reduced crop yields , eroded competitiveness of cities. We must lift the smog of air pollution .If we do we can save millions of lives and billions of dollars each year. LAST YEAR FLIGHTS WERE CANCELLED IN DELHI. PEOPLE WERE ADVISED TO STAY INDOORS OR WEAR MASKS JUAT AS WE DO NOW IN THE PANDEMIC. 

VEHICULAR EMISSIONS

The effects of long term exposure to fine particulate matter , nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, air toxics, and other pollutants contained in vehicular exhaust include 

cancer, heart disease, stroke, asthma, and stunted lung growth in children.

INDIAN SCENARIO

Indoor air pollution in India causes 300,000 to 400,000 deaths 

• Air pollution linked diseases and infections kill 600,000 children under 5 years 
• 102 cities in India are most polluted with particulate matter.
• 2.2 millions school children in Delhi are growing up with irreversible lung damage which will never recover. 
• Smog caused by smoke from burning waste has compelled authorities to close schools for 4 days in a season.
• Premature deaths due to pollution increased 50% from particulate matter between 1990 and 2015.
• Smoke from fires contributed one-fourth of dangerous air pollution in Indian capital.
• According to Lancet Planetary Health India’s toxic air killed 1.24 million people in 2017.
• According to EPI 2016 half of world’s population  including 75% Indians are exposed to unsafe air quality.
• 50% in India is exposed to PM 2.5 concentration beyond 40 micrograms per cubic metre.(40 microgram is the safe limit)
• Festival of Deepavali contributes to hazardous levels of air pollution.
• Severity of air pollution is such that LIFE EXPECTANCY IN INDIA ON AN AVERAGE REDUCES BY 3.4 YEARS  WHILE in DELHII IT REDUCES BY 6.3 YEARS.(Hansala Aman, A Comprehensive study of Air Pollution in India.)
• 64% of Indians use solid fuels with high PM 2.5 production.
• In Andhrapradesh solid fuel sourced PM 2.5 level found to be between 73 and 732.
• If we compare 2016 Environmental Performance Index India ranks 141st globally.

(worse than Iraq, Nigeria, Liberia, Ukraine, Egypt, Syria and several other less peaceful countries)

VEHICULAR EMISSIONS

• The effects of long-term exposure to fine particulate matter ,oxides of nitrogen, hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, air toxics, and other pollutants contained in vehicle exhaust include, lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, asthma, stunted lung growth in children.
• Exposure to these pollutants from childhood affects them life long.
•  Children being at the developmental stage get the size of their  of lungs smaller, become victims of asthma and respiratory diseases.

Planet Earth's atmosphere is common to all. The total mass of the atmosphere is about 5.5 quadrillion tons. And it is all in motion. 30 % of pollution is not taking place on its territory. The breeze on your cheek right now might include atoms that 2 days ago were crazily distant. The newest plant cell formed in your garden might have been built from molecules that only a day or two earlier had been in exotically different places from a decaying log in the Amazon or from a car on a distant freeway. Or from a hornbill exhaling somewhere in the Silent Valley in Kerala or from a baboon exhaling through its magnificent pipe- like nose in Africa. And there they still stay there for 100 to 150 years surrounded by more plucked atoms , stuck in place . Every plant breathes in the whole planet. A single wood cell contains 2 trillion sugar molecules. One cell would add 7, 71, 600 units of sugar molecules every second. Plants are harvesting raw carbon straight out of the air, building carbon molecules. A little sapling in your garden is champing down 4.6 million CO2 molecules every second.

HEALTH IMPACTS  DUE TO AIR POLLUTION

• Lower respiratory infections account for 16.5%of deaths in 2012 in children under 5years
• In 2015 15.5% of deaths of children under 5 .
• Household air pollution from smoke from cook stoves and secondhand tobacco smoke most important of environmental risks.
• Pollution from use of solid fuels for cooling and ambient air pollution together cause 50% of lower respiratory infections in children under 5 years.